Installed hydropower capacity in Canada looks set to increase from approximately 77.6GW in 2014 to an estimated 84.8GW by 2025, according to a new report from research and consulting firm GlobalData.
The report - Canada Power Market Outlook to 2025, Update 2015 - Market Trends, Regulations, and Competitive Landscape - states that hydropower will provide around 49.4% of Canada's cumulative installed capacity by the end of the forecast period. Other renewable sources, including wind, solar, biomass and biogas, will contribute 34.9 GW, a 20.3% share.
Chiradeep Chatterjee, GlobalData's Senior Analyst covering Power, said that the advent of federal and provincial policies supporting clean power means Canada's hydropower capacity is expected to increase at a high rate compared to coal and nuclear capacity in terms of future power generation.
"Canada is a global leader in hydropower generation, with the technology favored as a low-cost base-load power source that does not emit greenhouse gases," said Chatterjee. "While installed hydropower capacity is expected to increase at a modest Compound Annual Growth Rate of 0.7%, a number of large hydropower projects are currently in the construction phase and the country has the infrastructure in place to cope with more than double its current hydropower capacity."
Chatterjee added that after hydropower, the foremost renewable sources over the forecast period will be wind and solar power, with installed capacities of 24.9 GW and 6.9 GW by 2025, respectively.
"With concern over rising carbon emissions and the possibility of outages at fossil fuel-based power plants, wind and solar capacity additions are expected to increase to meet rising demand," the analyst said. "Government support could encourage the provinces of Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario, and Alberta to make large wind power capacity additions, while solar photovoltaic incentives, such as the Ontario Feed-in Tariff Program, will drive solar installations during the forecast period."
